Putting Your Home Office in Its Best Light

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The right lighting can make a world of difference, especially if
you spend long hours in front of a computer. But there's more to
choosing the best lights for your home office than you might
think.

The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
has launched the first interactive website to help people choose
the right light bulbs, fixtures and controls for every room in
the house, including ones with computers. Lighting Patterns for
Homes uses realistic photos created from 3D modeling software
that show several lighting options from simple bulb replacement
to new fixtures for those interested in a bigger project.

The site also includes an interactive economic calculator to
determine how much money you can save with a new lighting design,
along with initial costs and how long it will take for your
investment to pay for itself.

The researchers recognize that not everyone has their computer
stashed away in a room of its own, and therefore suggests
visitors also look at other rooms that may be more similar to the
room where the family does most of its computing. [Read
also: 5
Computer Spring-Cleaning Tips You Haven't Heard ]

Here's how to get started:

Go to the
site and select "Rooms." Start with Home Office to
understand how lighting around a computer is different from that
of other rooms. For instance, ambient lighting, such as light
from overhead fixtures, should be less bright than elsewhere and
should be augmented with a task light near the computer,
positioned to the left of a right-handed person and vice versa.

The site offers five lighting scenarios for
the home
office , ordered from left to right by the amount of effort
required for each. Start on the left with the base case and
work your way up to more elaborate lighting projects.

Understand lighting lingo. Relamp means replacing light bulbs
or replacing a plug-in fixture, such as a desk lamp. Rewiring
requires an electrician to replace or remove a hardwired lighting
fixture and install an alternate one. Remodel refers to an
installation that will require both a carpenter and an
electrician, such as installing recessed lighting.

Use the calculator to estimate the cost of your project,
savings and payback period. Most of the values contain a default
figure, such as the cost per kilowatt of electricity and the
hours the light will be lit, which you can adjust. Labor must be
filled in by you.

If you just want a quick estimate, check the listing under
each option, which will tell you the lumens (measured brightness
in the room) each plan will provide and the rough cost of
electricity for a year. If you added the task lighting shown in
the fourth option, you'd gain 4.5 times the lumens and save a few
dollars each year.

While you're mulling your options, you can save energy today,
simply by replacing standard
bulbs with LED or CFL bulbs, which are compact
fluorescent bulbs that are spiral-shaped tubes about the same
size as a regular bulb.

"Start by replacing the lights that are on for long periods of
time and use the most power. In most homes," LRC said. "This
means first replacing the primary lights in the kitchen, living
room, and dining room, which are on for an average of three hours
each day." However, heavy computer users may want to start in the
office.

Lighting Patterns for Homes can be accessed from any computer or
Web-enabled mobile device at http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/patternbook.
No registration is necessary to use the site.